ISOM group promotes student leadership

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

First-year student Maureen Hogarty (above) talks about the importance of being pro-active rather than re-active during the Isenberg School of Management Undergraduate Leadership Forum in Thompson Hall on April 26. Below, freshmen Sam Mathias and Carla Santiago take notes during the forum. (Stan Sherer photos)

n energetic new group of undergraduates in the Isenberg School of Management are creating and sharing opportunities for leadership around campus. Casually called ULead, short for Undergraduate Leadership Council, the organization has six committees that carry out its mission: to provide a vehicle for future leaders in the ISOM in ways that help others.

     Less than two years old, the council keeps an impressive array of balls in the air. During April alone, members organized a senior spaghetti dinner, a spring clean-up day, and what they hope will become an annual leadership conference, open to all students on campus. They also participated in an ongoing Habitat for Humanity project, sold graduation tickets, hosted a table during Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and participated in the ISOM's open house.

     The conference, called the Business Advisory Council/State Representative/Senator Leadership Forum, took place April 26. One hundred-thirty students and 20 legislators and alumni who are leaders in the business community came together to discuss the relationships among business, government and higher education.

     Earlier in the year, the group took 30 international students to Six Flags to welcome them to campus, raised more than $1,000 for Toys for Tots, helped the United Way paint the home of a 99-year-old area man, threw a senior ball, and held a pizza and basketball party for transfer students entering the ISOM mid-year.

     ULead has two levels of membership, according to its president, junior Christina Calvaneso. Approximately 60 active members take part in planning events, attending weekly committee meetings and monthly general meetings. An additional 90 students volunteer for the group's activities, such as the clean-up or the Habitat for Humanity work.

     "It's really geared toward SOM students," Calvaneso said. "But we welcome students of all majors."

     First-year Maureen Hogarty has been pleased with the opportunities she's had in the group as an incoming student.

Stan Sherer photo

     "It allows first-year students to step up and take leadership positions," said Hogarty, who chairs the fund-raising committee. Hogarty's committee has been so successful in raising money this year that its members have had time to organize activities, too.

     UMass CleanUp Day was hosted by her committee. After raising money for pizza and getting T-shirts from the sponsoring company, Northwestern Mutual, and borrowing tools from Physical Plant, the committee gathered about 50 volunteers and spent four hours picking up cigarette butts and other trash and scraping gum off the ground April 6.

     "We paid careful attention to where the tours are because tour season was coming up," Hogarty said. "First impressions are very important, and we wouldn't want someone not to come to this school because of the litter on the ground."

     With a newsletter, a Web site (www.u-lead.org) and a communications committee, ULead is in a position to reach a lot of students, but Calvaneso said the council learned a valuable lesson last year when it had 12 committees and its energies were scattered.

      "It might be a future goal to expand membership, but right now we're focused on being a better organization at our size," she said. "We started with 12 committees. We have six this year. We're trying to streamline, to keep lines of communication open."

     The group also is pressed for space at its general meetings in ISOM 103, which are standing room only.

     "Next semester it'll be in the new building," she said, saying she looks forward to more spacious surroundings.